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AIBU?

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Original poster

The chalet school and ofsted?

475 replies

thebody · 01/12/2012 11:56

Aibu to wonder what Ofsted would have made of the Chalet school.? Any fellow chaletians around?

OP posts:
adoptmama · 25/05/2013 07:44

Love all the Armiford ones, espeically the Chalet School at War, when Elisabeth Arnett comes good due to her devotion to Gillian Linton, but Betty Wyne-Davis goes all out bad and wears bright red lipstick and a head scarf.

Gasp

Have to say though I really do like the fact that she consistently lays the blame for children's problems on bad parenting. She did really understand how childhood instability caused problems for kids. Ahead of her time on that one.

But not on the role of women.... now girls, remember no matter how successful you are in your education, God has no greater plan for you than to be a wife and mother :)

My mum - well in her 60's now - introduced me to them when I was little.I have the full set and we both still re-read them avidly and I plan on forcing my DDs to like them too :) Having the fortune to live in central Europe I have many a familiar stroll down the Mariahilfe in Vienna thanks to EMBD and a rather good understanding of pre-war Austria. Every time I drive home I do a chaletian tour of austria :) Planning on getting to Oberamergau one year, but not painting my faces like 'Red Indians' and scaring the natives.

Have to say, when I re-read them now I find Joey an over-bearing, self-satisfied religious fundamentalist.

And do wonder about the regular appearance of tomboyish girls with no interest in boys.... Jack, Tom, etc.

And if only all my problems in life could be solved by marrying a doctor :)

Pascha · 25/05/2013 08:53

My favourite story is the second one, Chalet School and Jo. It seemed so evocative of an old fashioned christmas in the snow, even though it was a bit sickly sweet at times. I would have liked Herr Anserl to be my grumpy old uncle.

clarinetV2 · 26/05/2013 23:23

Yes, I like Jo of the Chalet School too - love the relationship between her and Madge in that book. I like the younger Joey better than her bossy and interfering older self!

I've started re-reading Chalet School and the Island today - I've just read one of the GGBP fillers set the term before that (A Difficult Term for the Chalet School) - it was really good and it made me want to jog my memory about what happens next. I'm intrigued that when they arrive at the landing stage in St Briavels, three busloads of girls get their cases into two mistress's cars. This includes two 'cellos in cumbersome wooden cases. What on earth were those mistresses driving?

SolidGoldBrass · 27/05/2013 00:10

Oh, I love Jo Of The Chalet School with the Oberammergau trip. I have actually been to Oberammergau and seen the Passion Play, though that was in 1984 so the real actors that EBD mentions would have been long gone, but it is a gorgeous place.

Though the Passion Play is actually pretty fucking tedious, particularly to a teenage Wiccan with a hangover...

clarinetV2 · 27/05/2013 00:31

Ooops, muddling my 'And Jo' and 'Jo Of'. I like them both, though. In fact I like all the Tyrolean ones. I can remember finding the tricks in Rivals hysterically funny and wishing I could be at boarding school so that I could flour someone's hair.

On the question of Ofsted, I'm not sure they'd do well on confidentiality in the latter years - every little detail of pupils' home backgrounds gets revealed to the foundress's sister. And forgive me if I've missed it, but I don't recall the mistresses sharing learning intentions and success criteria in their lessons.

MakesCakesWhenStressed · 27/05/2013 06:46

Just started re reading CS no1. Oh my Lord but Simone is irritating. and the sapphic undertones!

Kveta · 27/05/2013 07:19

I was talking to my grandmother about the chalet school books yesterday. She hasn't read them, but was at boarding school in the 1930s/1940s (her school was evacuated to the country during the war), so her experiences were not totally different to those of the chaletians.

She was telling me about a friend of hers, whose mother died when friend was 6, then her father remarried a year later, and friend was sent to boarding school to keep her out of the way of her stepmother. I can't imagine that sort of thing happening nowadays!

And I was commenting on how alien it seems to me, that the women all go overseas with their husbands in the chalet school books, leaving their kids behind (because no matter how much we joke about sending ds to boarding school, I really wouldn't want to be away from him for years at a time!). Grandma just said that it was to stop the husbands from straying, as back then it was far harder to be separated/divorced, and support your children. So most women, when given the choice, chose husbands over children, so kids were shipped off to boarding schools.

Seems like a different world to me!

Anyway, I am still very much enjoying reacquainting myself with Joey et all :) it is rather topping to be able to reread the books now! :o

Pascha · 27/05/2013 07:40

Grizel was basically sent away to keep her out from under her stepmother's feet wasn't she? No wonder she was bitter for so long, with a dead mother, a distant and unloving father and a stepmother who had no idea of her existence til she was fairly married!

HesterShaw · 27/05/2013 11:37

Talking of Grizel I never read the one in which she was hit in the head with a stone by an Irish firebrand called Deira. What happened?

MissAnnersley · 27/05/2013 11:42

I think it was Head Girl of the Chalet School which is number 4 or 5 in the series.

Grizel is made head girl and Deira O'Hagan doesn't like her. During a snow ball fight words were exchanged (I think) and Deira loses her temper and throws a stone or a snowball with a stone in it.

It hits Grizel on the temple ( naturally!) and she is knocked out.

Disclaimer - that is my best recollection and I could possibly have got most of it wrong.

MissAnnersley · 27/05/2013 11:43

I can't remember filling out an accident form either. Shock

What would ofsted say?

HesterShaw · 27/05/2013 11:59

Tssssk Miss Annersley.

And what happened to your chum Miss Wilson? Compared to some of you lot, I am a CS ignoramus. I could never get a lot of the copies. The book shop and library in our village wasn't the best!

MissAnnersley · 27/05/2013 12:02

She ended up in charge of the finishing school branch of the Chalet School in Switzerland.

I remember reading somewhere that she had a huge crush on Jack Maynard.

HesterShaw · 27/05/2013 12:03

Really. REEEEEEALLY????

And could someone tell me all about the books in which the girls' future lives are described. Are they by EBD or another writer?

MissAnnersley · 27/05/2013 12:06

It's another write Hester. I have only read a summary of the book. It was pretty horrible and definitely not in the spirit of the EBD books IMO.

Am off to have a google to try and find it.

The Miss Wilson thing I read in an article on a Chalet School fan site or in one of the Chalet school fan magazines that I used to subscribe too. Blush

MissAnnersley · 27/05/2013 12:06

Blimey. Used to subscribe to not too.

MissAnnersley · 27/05/2013 12:09

I think this is the book about them all growing up.

HesterShaw · 27/05/2013 12:17

It was supposed to be following the lives of the Maynard triplets after they left school, but every year in their lives was an annus horribilus apparently. This book has rape, suicide, infidelity, drugs

Shock[shockShock

HesterShaw · 27/05/2013 12:17

So shocked I had shock-fail.

Holliewantstobehot · 27/05/2013 12:17

Yes and Carola who is left with her great aunt while her mother goes out to Africa with her husband - sees her parents about twice as far as I can gather. And all the Bettany kids are dumped on Madge while they live it up in India. No wonder they manage to have so many children, no saying not tonight darling I am exhausted!
But when they do finally see their parents all is lovely whereas I would imagine in real life you would feel either resentment or indifference to people who had left you half way round the world for years on end.

HesterShaw · 27/05/2013 12:29

I liked Carola.

clarinetV2 · 27/05/2013 13:00

Whaaaaaat? Miss Wilson had a crush on Jack Maynard? Never! I always thought that she and Miss Annersley were an item.

I love the hetero couple romances as described in the CS. They're so bland and seem to offer so little (especially to the women), it put me off heterosexuality for life. Whereas the friendships/relationships between the girls and the women are complex, interesting, continually developing and full of nuances. I'm pretty sure it's not what Brent-Dyer intended, but I read them and came to the conclusion that a woman-centered life was the way to go!

MissAnnersley · 27/05/2013 13:03

The whole article was based on a couple of exchanges between them over her hair turning white. I wish I could find it.

Will go off and look for it again.

HesterShaw · 27/05/2013 13:26

Ah. The Chalet School in Exile.

I wish I could work out how to work my Kindle :(

Holliewantstobehot · 27/05/2013 15:53

I always thought Miss Annersley and Rosalie Dene were an item myself. No reason why, just did. I agree about the marriages though - all these hard working, well educated career women who have travelled all over Europe in charge of lot of kids are suddenly deemed incapable of deciding anything for themselves, are not allowed to work and seem to have to ask their husband what to do in all sorts of situations. Jem takes charge of the school in Chalet School in Exile as though Madge couldn't possibly know what to do!